Eyeglasses and spectacles.



' J. 0. WELLS. EYEGLASSES AND' SPEOTAGL ES.

AYPLIOAIION FILED AUG.29, 1911.

Patented Dec. 3, 1912.

INVENTOR Jan 2 W47! 5.

WITNESSES:

A TTORNE Y To all whom/it may concern:

I UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFXCE.

. tonne. WELLS, or sou'rnnnmen, 'mssncnvsnr'rs EYEGLASSES ANDSPECTACLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

. Patented Dec. 3, 15912.

Application filed August 29, 1911. Serial No. 646,593.

Be itknown that I, JOEL C. WELLS, a

citizen of the United States, residing at forms of bridges havingwidened ends in way of their attachment to the lens attachin means.

he principal object of .my' invention is toprovlde an improved bridge inwhich the nose curve or arch may be started near the inner edge of thelenses, minimum the space between the lens and the .point wherethe'bridge leaves the nose, to

, accommod te wearers having a wide nose space and a narrow pupilarydistance.

My invention comprises a blank for a bridge wherein form the pivotbearings for the nose clamp levers are disposed to one side of thenoseportion of the bridge in order to provide .an initial bending pointforthe nose portion lying at a minimum distance from the path of thenose clamp lever, that is to say, the distance between the initialbending point of the arched portion and the pivotal point. of the noseclamp lever is a minimum.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in thenovel construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described,delineated in' the drawings and claimed, it being understood thatchanges pro erly falling within the scope of what is c aimed may bemadewithout departing from the spirit of my invention.

Similar numerals of reference-are employed to denote corresponding partsthroughout the several figures of the drawings.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure I represents a perspective view ofa pair of eyeglasses embodying my invention. Fig. II represents a topview of Fig. I in place on the wearers nose. Fig. III represents theusual or old style of an unbent blank the lens connecting elements beingindicated by dotted lines. Fig. IV represents my present invention infor forming 'a bridge the usual or old st le of bridge blank bent to toFigs. II, V, and VI, this term being aptoreduce to a the enlarged endswhich the form of an unbent blank for forming a bridge the lensoonnectinw elements being indicated by dotted lines. 1* ig. V representsthe lens connectin elements, which are indicated by dotted mes. Fig. VIrepresents my present invention. bent tofinished form and ready forattachment to the lens connecting elements, which are indicated bydotted lines. g i

The term Wide base as used in the specification will be understood byreference plied in the o tical sense to that portion of the bridge WhlChis occupied by the wearers nose and lies-between the inner or concavesides of the bridge projected to a horizontal line drawnthrough thecenter of the unbent ends of the bridge blank as indicated by C and C.The termf pupilary distancei will be understood by reference to Fig. II.This is'the distance between the pupils of the wearers-eyes. Thisdimension measured between lens and lens is indicated at E. The centerof the wearers eyes should be coincident with the optical centers of thelenses in order to secure the optical advantages of the prescriptionswhich have been ground on the lenses to suit the specific case.

' Referring specifically to the drawings: A rigid bridge 1 is attachedat its ends to lens attaching members 2 which are employed to holdlenses 3 in the usual manner. Pivoted horizontally on the widened endsof the bridge 1 are nose clamp levers t carrying on their inner endsnose clips 5 in the usual well known manner. The ends of the bridge 1are flattened and widened to a radius I) and drilled to dimension A toreceive a fulcrum member on which the nose clamp lever works. The pointsB indicated by arrows are the" holding points of the tool on the blankof my invention, around which the metal of the blank is bent whenpressure of the bending member is exerted on the center of the bridge,as indicated by arrows at G, the point B- being the correspondin pointon a blank of the customarvor old 106 occupied by the wearers noseprojected on a line drawn through the ends of the unbent 1 1 ThedimensionE is known 1 bridge member. as the pupilary distance, and asdescribed above, represents the distance between the" pupils of thewearers eyes. In Fig. II the pupilary distance E is shown in its idealcondition with relation to the center of the wearers eyes, that is tosay, when the center of the eye is coincident with the optical center ofthe lens, as represented by the vertical nose clamp levers.

lines F F which intersect the two centers.

The location of the point B is the essential feature of my invention andit will be noted by reference to Fig. IV thatI have taken a blank inwhich the widened ends are disposed to one side of the .bridge portionproper, the object being to locate the point B which is the initialbending point of the bridge at the minimum longitudinal distance fromthe pivot of the nose clamp lever,

the point B being located to clear the sweep of the nose clamp leverabout its bearings. Reference to Fig. VI will show a bridge involving mvinvention after it has been bent. while Fig. V shows the usual or oldstyle bridge after bending. and it will be .fa'r as the phvsiognomy ofthe wearer is concerned. and in cases where the wearer has a verv widenose anda'very narrow pupilary distance it is of the first importance toreduce this distanceto a minimum. and it is to accomplish this purposethat I have designed my blank so as to throw the initial bending point Bat a minimum distancefrom the center of the widened ends of the bridge.as explained.

In the preferred method of making a bridge embodying mv invention. theblank is first produced in the form illustrated in Fig. IV; the lensattachingclements Q are then secured to the bridge in a linesubstantially parallel with the longitudinal center line of the blank.as shown in dotted lines in Fig. IV. The blank is then bent to form thearch for the nose, the lens holding elements being held in theirlongitudinal position. The flattened endsof the bridge are then drilledat A to form the pivots for the The lensesand the nose clamp lovers arenext put-in place in the usual well known manner. If preferred. however,the lens attachingflelements need not bese'cured to the bridgqbefore thearch is bent, but they maybe suitably fastened thereto after thisoperation has been'performed, and the widened ends of the bridge may beprovided with posts instead of eyes to form the pivot for the nose cliplever.- This specific type of bridge. is particularly applicable to aneyeglass, having pivoted nose clamp levers known as? fingerpieceeyeglasses, in which the lever isfulcrumed on the ends of the bridge,and it is, therefore, necessary that the bend of the bridge ,be clear ofthe area covered by the lever nijits pivotal motion in order that theaction of the lever may not be restricted.

By comparing Fig. IV, which shows my improved form of blank, with Fig.III, showing the usual or old style of blank, the advantages of theformer tov lend itself to abrupt bending in the direction of'the arrowat the center of the bridge, will be readily seen. In Fig. IV, whichshows the present form of invention, it will be noted that the blank isof a shape offering a peculiar initial advantage to bending, as thepoint of applying the bending tool at B can be located much nearer tothe end of the blank than can the corresponding pointB in Fig. III.

Consequently the waste space between the curve of the bridge and thepivot of the nose clamp lever is reduced to a minimum, allowing thelenses to be brought in nearer to' accommodate persons having narrowpupilary distances; 7

To illustrate the peculiar advantages of a wide base bridge having anarrow distance between the initial bending point and the center of thenose clamp pivot, attention is invited to Fig. II, where the inventionis illustrated in place on the wearers nose, it being assumed forpurposes of illustration that the weafers nose is unusually wide and hispupilary distance unusually narrow. In

this case, ifthe usual old style bridge had been used, that is, a bridgemade from a blank as shown in Fig. III, and bent as in Fig. V, it isapparent that to have the curve of the bridge wide enough to accommodatethe nose, the distance between the optical centers of the lenseswould'have to be increased to such an extent as to throw these centersofthe lenses farther apart than shown. They, therefore, would notcorrespond with the centers of the pupils of the wearers eyes. Thewearer thus would lose the optical advantages of his prescription; thatis, the lenses would not be correct, from which it is apparent that itis of the first importance to have the centers of the lenses coincidewith the centers of the wearers pupils, or in other words, if thedistance between the centers of the wearers eyes does not correspondwith the centers ofhis lenses, there will be aprescriptive defect, whichis injurious, and it'is to overcome this defect in cases where thepatient has a very wide nose and a very narrow pupilary distance that Ihave designed the peculiar formation of bridge shown in my invention. Itwill be noted in the majority of cases involving a narrow pupilarydistance that by reducing the distance between the lens edge and thebend of the arch of the bridge, as in my invention, the pupilarydistance may be accommodated without altering the shape and" size ofstandard lenses, thereby obviating special grinding and consequentexpense.

I have described the preferred. form of my invention, but it is possiblefor modifications to be made which do not depart from the'spiritthereof, and consequently I do not desire to be limited to the exactdetails shown and described.

' Having thus described my invention, the

following is what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by LettersPatent-:

1. A lens mounting com rising a bridge fiiember terminating at eac endin a rearwardly ofis'et lug, said lugs being substantially semi-circularin form and so disposed that the curvature of their inner si es is "a.uhstantially a continuation of the curve of the bridge, and'lens clipssecured to the extremities of the In said clips being disposed inalinement wlth each other and with the medial portions of the lugs.

Copies of this patent may he obtained. for m cents each, by addressingthe v Washington, 11 .0.

2; .A bridge, comprising'a central arch portion terminating at each endina rearwardly offset seat havlng its inner face disosed substantiallytangential to the curvatime of the arch of the bridge j 3. In aneyeglass mounting, the combination with a bridge having a central archedportion terminatlng at each end ina seat projecting rearward-1y from'thearched portion with its inner face substantially tangent-ial to of alens clip attached to the seat and disposed with its medial linerearwardly of the terminus of the arched portion of the bridge.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature m'presence of two wltnesses.

JOEL WELLS.

, Witnesses:

Rnonmnn H. WATERS, PAUL T, TRUEMAN.

fiommisaioner of Patents,

the curvature of the arch extended,

